May 11, 2005

Thistle canvas

I've finally put paint to canvas on my latest creative project. I wanted to work on something that had big areas of flat, solid colour and on a fairly large scale so I came up with the idea of creating my own 'paint by numbers'. I've created a thistle canvas gallery so that I can see what progress I'm making.

I started off with several different photos and images for inspiration and opted for an image of a thistle. I put the image through various different filters in Photoshop until I had the affect that I wanted. Then I outlined the different areas of colour and transfered the outline pattern onto a large canvas. Usually you would use something like acrylics on a canvas like this, but I wanted to experiment a little and have opted for using up paint from all those little tester pots that you have left over after decorating. The paint is working really well and I'm using it up rather than throwing it away which is more environmentally friendly. I'm generally pleased with how the canvas looks so far.

As usual the original idea has evolved and been adapted as I paint. I've amalgamated some outlines to create bigger areas of colour and I've moved some of the colours around. At this stage it seems to be shaping up well but I'm not sure that it will actually look like a thistle when it's finished! Doubts part way through are normal for me though, so I'll perservere.

I started this way back in October '04 but now that I've begun the process of painting work has picked up a pace and I'm hoping to have it finished over the next few weeks.

Perhaps this is inspiration for anyone wondering what to do with old tester pots? Buy yourself a canvas (you can get a decent sized one for about £15, this large one I've got cost £25) and let the artist within you loose with a paintbrush! If you don't have an inner artist struggling to get out, you could always mark areas with masking tape and go for a geometric pattern instead.

3 comments by 2 or more people

Thanks, fingers crossed it turns out alright! I've been going on this canvas for 7 months so if I did commissions, they'd be very very slooooooooooow.

12 May 2005, 16:01

Joanna Jameson

WOW! I love that idea! You are SO creative! "Hi" by the way :-) . I really think that's such a sweet idea and you could do it with loads of different subjects. I am catching up on the blog entries, just getting a flavour of what I've missed in the last few months. I'll keep reading!

26 Aug 2005, 15:16

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